EX-BANKER TO TEST TALENTS IN RUSSIA

Walter J. Connolly Jr., the man who built the Bank of New England Corp. into a regional banking power at a dizzying pace before it crashed last year, is offering financial advice in Russia.

Connolly has moved to Moscow to serve as chairman of Bosmosco, a Boston-based company that wholesales American goods in Russia and Russian goods in the United States.

Connolly joined the company in May to advise it on ways to work with the new Russian banking system, which was overhauled after last year's Soviet coup, according to Bosmosco President Henry Quinlan.

Connolly now is guiding Bosmosco as it expands into investment banking, Quinlan said Friday. He said Connolly is working with Russian and Western companies seeking financing for equipment and rebuilding of plants in Russia.

Quinlan said Connolly's background is valuable because of "his knowledge and experience in banking."

Quinlan declined to disclose Connolly's salary. Connolly was receiving more than $500,000 in severance pay after he was fired by the directors of BNE in January 1990, about a year before BNE was seized by the federal government in the biggest bank failure in New England history. Connolly, who had retreated from the limelight to his home on Cape Cod, also was considering writing a book about his experiences.

Quinlan said he was introduced by a mutual friend to Connolly in December as Bosmosco, formed in 1988 to do business in Russia, was trying to adjust to the Russian banking system that was revamped after last August's coup.

"Walter said the only way he could assess the situation was to go over. He did," said Quinlan, who made several trips to Russia with Connolly.

Connolly officially joined Bosmosco in May and moved from Cape Cod to an apartment in Moscow, Quinlan said.

Bosmosco runs a wholesale showroom in Moscow that offers American and and some European products ranging from clothing and sporting goods to medical and office items, Quinlan said.

The company, which has about 15 employees in Boston and another

15 in Moscow, also runs a wholesale showroom, or "merchandise mart," in Boston for Russian goods. That showroom at 50 Franklin St. features such items as Russian lacquered boxes, jewelry, paintings and giftware.

Bosmosco briefly considered opening a Russian bank in a joint venture with American investors but abandoned the idea after deciding it was only a matter of time before American banking leaders would launch operations there, Quinlan said.

Instead, Connolly began to lead Bosmosco into investment banking, an area in which the company plans to expand, Quinlan said.

Quinlan, who was in the publishing business in Boston, said he got the idea to open Bosmosco while collaborating with Russian diplomat Vitaly Churkin during the late 1980s on a book comparing Churkin's experiences living in the United States and the Soviet Union. The book was never completed.

Connolly's personality, as well as his banking experience, is a perfect fit for the burgeoning company, Quinlan said. "He has a tremendous entrepreneurial spirit for someone of his age," he said of the 62-year-old former banker.

Indeed, Connolly is no stranger to becoming involved in companies with ambitious growth plans.

After the former Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. chairman took the reins of the parent BNE, Connolly led BNE through a series of aggressive acquisitions and heavily into commercial real estate lending